We are beyond excited to announce that the Morbid Anatomy Museum will, at long last, open its doors to the public this Saturday, June 28th at noon! If you arrive right on time, you might be on hand for the official ribbon cutting accompanied by, I am told, complimentary prosecco and hors d'ouevres.

From Saturday on, the Morbid Anatomy Museum will be open from 12-6 every day except for Tuesdays and holidays, and the price of admission will gain you access to both the newly installed Morbid Anatomy Libraryand our inaugural temporary exhibition "The Art of Mourning." This exhibition will showcase artworks--many of them never before exhibited--relating to mourning culture
from the 18th to the 20th century including postmortem paintings and photography;
hair art shadowboxes and jewelry; death masks; spirit photography; and mourning china drawn mainly from the astounding private collection of Stanley B. Burns MD, author of Sleeping Beauty and founder of The Burns Archive. Also included are pieces from the collections of Karen Bachmann, Jennifer Berman, Elizabeth A. Burns, Alice Lease Dana, Tracy Hurley Martin, Amber Jolliffe Maykut, Evan Michelson and Mike Zohn. The show is curated by Morbid Anatomy founder Joanna
Ebenstein and scholar in residence Evan Michelson.

This Friday, June 27th, we would also like to cordially invite you to a special grand opening celebration and preview where you can take in the exhibitions before they open to the general public while also enjoying live music from violin duo Miolina, DJed tunes by Friese Undine, traditional mourning foods by Rachel Rideout, complementary wine and hors d’oeuvres from Runner and Stone, a special tour of the exhibit by Stanley B. Burns, and a spirit photo booth where you can have your photo taken with a spirit of your choice.

Full details for the party follow; Admission is $50 ($35 for Morbid Anatomy Museum Members). You can purchase tickets here and become a Morbid Anatomy Museum member by clicking here.

Hope very much to see you there! And thanks so very, very much to all of you who supported this project; it could literally not have been happened without you, and we can't wait to welcome you to the new space!

Please join us for a special opening celebration for The Morbid Anatomy Museum! Enjoy live music from violin duo Miolina, DJed music by Friese Undine, and traditional mourning foods as well as complementary wine and hors d’oeuvres from Runner and Stone. There will also be spirit photo booth where you can have your photo taken with a spirit of your choice.

Attending
this party will also get you an exclusive sneak peek of the museum and
our our inaugural exhibition "The Art of Mourning," which will showcase
decorative arts relating to mourning culture from the 18th to the 20th
century featuring never before exhibited artifacts drawn from the
private collection of Stanley B. Burns MD, Technical Consultant to HBO-Cinemax series,"The Knick," author of Sleeping Beauty, founder of The Burns Archive. Dr. Burns will give a special walk through of the exhibition, and curators Joanna Ebenstein and Evan Michelson and many of the other collectors will be on hand to show their pieces and answer your questions.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Kristin Hussey--Assistant Curator of the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons
with responsibility for the Odontological Collection--has kindly agreed
to write a series of guest posts for Morbid Anatomy about some of the
most curious objects in her collection.

The seventh post from that series--entitled "Dentures, Death and Fashion: Waterloo Teeth"-- commemorates The Battle of Waterloo, which took place 199 years ago today--June 18th, 1815.

The full post follows; you can view all posts in this series by clicking here.

Teeth have always been a commodity. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the price for healthy human teeth was at a premium. They were hotly sought after by dentists who used them to replace the lost ones of their wealthy clients. With sugar consumption skyrocketing, the Georgian upper classes began to lose their teeth at an enormous rate and custom dentures were a matter of function and fashion.

These replacement teeth were most commonly made from animal ivory which deteriorated rapidly in the mouth with no enamel to protect them. Human teeth were a more attractive but perhaps unsavory option. In the 18th century, these ‘natural’ teeth were usually acquired from executed criminals, bodies from the Resurrection men, or pulled from dentist’s patients. This was all changed during the Peninsular Wars in the early 19th century where young, healthy men were being killed- an ideal ground for the tooth hunters. The famous surgeon Sir Astley Cooper (1768-1841) is known to have sent a man behind the battles in 1814 to prise the teeth from soldiers’ mouths. His servant famously wrote to him, ‘Only let there be such a battle and there will be no want of teeth; I’ll draw them as fast as the men are knocked down.’

Cooper got his wish on the 18th of June 1815 when the French army was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. Over 51,000 men lost their lives on the field, but their loss was the dentists’ gain. An enormous surplus of human teeth flooded the market. These battlefield teeth quickly picked up the moniker ‘Waterloo teeth’ and even had a certain appeal. Genuine ‘Waterloo teeth’ was a draw for the discerning lady or gentleman looking for a high quality denture.

The Odontological Collection holds a number of dentures with natural teeth from the 19th century, but the only ones we can be certain came from the fields at Waterloo are a collection donated in 1950 by the surgeon and archaeologist Eliot Cecil Curwen (RCSOM/M 30.2). While this may seem quite late, it wasn’t until the early twentieth century that the technology for false teeth was able to steal the business away from the ‘genuine’ article.

Images:

"Scotland Forever!" Lady Elizabeth Butler, 1881, depicting the charge of the Royal North British Dragoons (The Scots Greys) at the Battle of Waterloo. Found here.

RCSOM/M 30.2: Teeth removed from bodies after Battle of Waterloo, 1815. These teeth were drawn from the bodies of soldiers who died at the battlefield of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Ticket to an anatomical lecture given by Doctor Alexander Ramsay (ca. 1754-1824), dated 1809, which granted Samuel A. Bradley Esquire, "admission to 'Anatomy and Physiology or the 1st Course No. 13' which likely included a live dissection of a cadaver."

Sunday, June 8, 2014

I am delighted to be speaking as part of "Vesalius Continuum," a conference celebrating the 500th anniversary of "father of modern anatomy" Andreas Vesalius! Organized by friends Pascale Pollier and Dr. Ann Van de Velde, the "Vesalius Continuum" will take place on the Greek island of Zakynthos (where Vesalius dies in 1564) from September 4-8, and will host a wonderful mix of scientists and artists,
medical historians, art historians, medical artists and contemporary
artists.

Full conference lineup fellows; for more--and to register!--click here. Hope very much to see you there!

Thursday, 4 September 2014
10.00: gathering of the officials, speakers and guests
10.30: Opening Ceremony (hosted by Theo Dirix)
10.35: Greetings of Welcome by Mr Stelios Bozikis, Mayor of Zakynthos; H.E. Marc Van den Reeck, Ambassador of Belgium in Athens; Pascale Pollier, President BIOMAB and AEIMS
10.55: Greek representatives of the Ministries of Health, Education and Tourism
11.15: Key-note speaker: Stefanos Geroulanos, MD, PhD, Professor of Surgery, University of Zurich, Prof emeritus History of Medicine, University of Ioannina, President
11.45: Welcome drink and canapes (hosted by Dr. Stephen Joffe)
13.15 – 14.00: Unveiling of the new monument sculpted by Richard Neave and Pascale Pollier and Plinth with Vesalius coat of arms sculpted by Chantal Pollier and Inauguration
17.00 – 19.30: Round Table: "Traveling through time with a camera in Zakynthos:,
Vesalius and the healers in his footsteps" chaired by: Katerina Demeti, Director of the Museum of D. Solomos and Katerina Kabassi, Head of the Protection and Preservation of Cultural Heritage, TEI of Ionian Islands

Topics: The details of Vesalius’ life were established, to a considerable extent, in Charles O’Malley’s biography published in 1964 on the 400th anniversary of his death and in a later work by Stephen Joffe. However, much recent original historical work (by Steeno, Biesbrouck Goddeeris and Plessas) has focused on the circumstances of his last voyage, his death and his burial place on the island (The Quest for the Grave: Pantokrator or Santa Maria delle Grazia?). Presentation of a G.I.S. by Sylviane Dederix of the Foundation for Research and Technology, Hellas (F.O.R.T.H.) and Institute for Mediterranean Studies (I.M.S.) (deputy director Apostolos Sarris) and Pavlos Plessas, seconded by EBSA, the Belgian School in Athens (director Jan Driessen), sponsored by Agfa Healthcare and coordinated by Theo Dirix, will be made by Sylviane Dederix (F.O.R.T.H., UCL). An attempt is made to identify Vesalius’s cause of death (Pavlos Plessas).

Topics: The Fabrica (1543) will of course be the central focus. There
are two new developments of special interest concerning what is rightly
considered to be one of the great treasures of Western civilisation. A
second edition has recently been discovered which scholarly analysis (by
Nutton) suggests was annotated by Vesalius himself in preparation for a
never published third edition. Karger, located in Basel where the original was published, are bringing out a new English translation (by
Garrison and Hast) to coincide with the quincentenary. Attention will
also be directed toward his other works such as the Epitome and the
China Root Epistle.

20.30: Open Air Concert with Beatriz Macias
(flute, voice), Yannick Van De Velde (piano) and Roeland Henkens
(trumpet), at the Church of Faneromeni, built in the 17th C, destroyed
by the earthquake of 1953, but restored following its original design.
The concert opens a tour on the Ionian Islands as part of the cultural
cycle: Things from Belgium.

Topics: Relations between the art and science of anatomy from the time of Vesalius to the present will be considered with particular emphasis on the role of the medical artist and the changing nature of anatomical illustration over the last five centuries. Pivotal changes in the art of anatomy will be examined including the evolution of media and brain imaging from Golgi to Geschwind.Saturday, 6 September 2014 /afternoon session 14:00-17:30
Session 4: 21st century anatomy teaching and learning Quo Vadis?
Chairs: Peter Abrahams (UK) and Francis van Glabbeek (BE).
Speakers:
14.00 – 14.20: Bernard Moxham – A modern way of learning gross anatomy/dissection by the students
14.20 – 14.40: Susan Standring - Grays anatomy: past, present and future roles of a major reference book
14.40 – 15.00: Shane Tubbs - Translational research: can surgery focus anatomical research and education- the reverse of Vesalius’ time?
15.00 – 15.20: Marios Loukas - Radiology and imaging : a servant of anatomists or shining light of clinical anatomy education?
15.20 – 15.40: Discussion
15.40 – 16.00: Coffee break
16.00 – 16.20: Robert Trelease – Ideal world or not: designing modern anatomy teaching and facilities for meeting changing demands in evolving curricula.
16.20 – 16.40: Richard Turnstall - Latest technology: how can emerging technologies enhance anatomy teaching and learning and has 3D technology got an important future role?
16.40 – 17.00: Tom Lewis – Mobile technology and medical Apps in modern anatomy education: an innovative replacement for the cadaver experience?
17.00 – 17.30: Questions and discussion-Final summary
Speakers all Sponsored by: St. George's University, Grenada, West Indies

Topics: The role of the medical artist in the 21st century will be addressed together with strategies for the education of medical artists and medical students. The wider field of medical art in the forensic field, in the research field and in the publishing world and literature will be explored, and a close look taken at European ‘Art and Science’ courses and collaborations.

Topics: A session devoted to a variety of cultural events at the interface between the human body, science and technology, sci art, the cyborg body, quantum physics, encompassing performance art, theatre, music and poetry.